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Doing Science activities with bare basics

This project, nicknamed SEE-SAW, is meant to provide opportunities for any student in any school to do science. Even for schools in the poor...

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

State of Science Education in Africa - Report from NASAC

 The Network of African Science Academies, NASAC, did a continental survey back in 2020-21. While it only consisted of 24 schools answering the survey, from five different countries, it was interesting to me that, at that time at least, they say most schools tend to still favor traditional teaching methods of science - theoretical lecture and theoretical-practical - rather than any type of inquiry based learning methods, such as more extensive laboratory work.

The SEE SAW lessons are meant to try and put the students in the role of scientist, get their hands dirty, and reach conclusions and learn from physical observations and measurements. Because this survey also showed a good number of schools do not have well-equipped laboratories, SEE SAW activities use, by design, basic materials we hope nearly all schools can obtain, with no extensive or expensive equipment needed. 



Friday, February 6, 2026

Do you want to measure the mass of the Earth, with a piece of string?!?!

 Have you wondered how we know the mass of the planet Earth? 

Try this activity, using a pendulum and a watch or timer to measure the period of the pendulum - the period is the time it take for one full swing of the pendulum - which can then be used to calculate the mass of the planet! It is possible to do the same thing on any other planet, or moon, or asteroid. This uses Newton's law of gravity, and the fact that the motion of a pendulum is dependent on how massive the planet is to do the calculation. 

The accepted mass is 6 x 10^24 kg, by the way!